New York bomb plot suspect Jose Pimentel's mother apologizes

NEW YORK - The mother of a “lone wolf” accused of plotting to attack police stations and post offices with homemade bombs apologized to New Yorkers on Monday, even as questions arose about why federal authorities - who typically handle terrorism cases - declined to get involved in what city officials called a serious threat.

The mother of Jose Pimentel spoke to reporters outside her upper Manhattan home the day after her son was arraigned in state court on terrorism-related charges.

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She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, “I think they handled it well.”

Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.

Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD’s Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.

The FBI thought Pimentel “didn’t have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own,” one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI’s New York office and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.

Pimentel’s lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.

“If the goal here is to be stopping terror … I’m not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources,” he said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop “all along” before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.

“No question in my mind that we had to take this case down,” Kelly said. “There was an imminent threat.”

Added Kelly: “This is a classic case of what we’ve been talking about - the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city.”

Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and “Al-Qaeda sympathizer” who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.